


The season isn't that long

by Yamagata_deserved_better



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Baseball, Alternate Universe - High School, Domestic Fluff, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, M/M, POV Alternating
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-30
Updated: 2016-08-03
Packaged: 2018-07-27 15:10:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,009
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7623535
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yamagata_deserved_better/pseuds/Yamagata_deserved_better
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lance wasn’t the best player that much was obvious. He never played on a little league team or just thrown the ball around. The only reason he was joining the baseball team was because his parents were making him.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Lance Joins the baseball team only to realize his rival and crush are on the same team.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Try something new

**Author's Note:**

> Baseball au
> 
>  
> 
> I honestly tried... i'm not used to writing yet.
> 
> Chapter 2 in the near future...

Lance wasn’t as good as everyone else that much was obvious. He never played on a little league team or just thrown the ball around. The only reason he was joining the baseball team was because his parents were making him. They wanted him to have something extracurricular on his transcript, so here he was in the humid weather, staring at the group of guys chatting.

The first person he noticed was him, the only guy that could rub him the wrong way. Lance could spot that mullet anywhere. He spotted the mullet once when he was getting lunch with Hunk, and practically went to fight the kid then and there. Keith, his name was Keith. He was Lance’s rival to the end of time.

To see Keith here, on the team he was going to join, only made him cringe. Hopefully he wasn’t any good. Hopefully he was worse than Lance. Lance was going to be disappointed, to say the least.

Lance had to double take though when he looked towards the shed, staring at the nicely defined butt he could recognize anywhere. He had stared at that butt many times throughout the years, trying to catch a glimpse of it whenever he could. He would purposely walk behind that butt whenever he got the chance, and ‘look at his feet’. He wasn’t obviously looking at his feet, but it was a nice cover story.

So when Lance saw that glorious butt the only thing he thought of was, Shiro.

Shiro had been his crush since he had first saw him. He was practically a legend to everyone in his grade, and a mystery at the same time. Nobody knew for sure why he had a prosthetic hand, and nobody heard from him the year before. He had disappeared only to return with a scar, a robotic hand, and a white bangs. He had looked like he had aged 5 years above the rest of them, but he was only 2 years older than them.

Lance was still watching him when he stood straight again. His eyes traveling along the curves of his muscles and back. He was still ogling him when he felt a hand on his shoulder. He screamed and leaped away from the touch. When he looked at who had disturbed ‘anatomy study’ he saw Hunk.

“Hunk! What are you doing! You can’t just walk up to a guy who’s spacing out and grab his shoulder!”

“Okay, but exactly what were you spacing out at? Like you seemed pretty focused dude”.

If Lance had been drinking anything he would have done a spit take, simple as that. The last person he wanted to know of his crush was Hunk. The guy would probably tell anyone with brains. It was obvious Lance liked girls, he would flirt with them any chance he got. Before, during, and after class. But his interests were more with the guys. Yeah he was Bi, but he crushed more on dudes. Dudes like Shiro.

“I was just seeing who was on the team! Why are you here?”

“Had to join, mom said I needed to interact with anything other than my calculator, the engineering homework, and the fridge. Why are you here?”

“Mom’s making me join, says I need to get out more and make sure I have some extracurricular activity on my transcript.”

“Oh, well at least I won’t be on the team knowing nobody,” Hunk said with a smile.

The two started towards the small group of kids. When he got closer he started to glare at Keith, practically burning a hole into his head. Keith had turned around to face him shooting him a puzzling glare right back. They had been in each other’s presence for barely a minute and were already about to fight.

“What the hell is your problem?”

“My problem! My problem is that my rival is on the same team as me!” Lance yelled back.

“Rival? I’m not your rival, I don’t even know you.”

“The name’s Lance McClain, your rival! We’ve been rivals since you hit me with that dodge ball in 9th grade.”

“Oh, I remember you. You’re that kid who I hit so hard you got a nose bleed and thought you broke your nose.” Keith was being arrogant to say the least, scoffing at the last bit of his sentence.

Lance was about to burst and lunge at him, stopping in his tracks when he saw someone approaching carrying a bag of bats over his shoulder, a bucket of baseballs in one hand, and a huge bag in the other hand. It was Shiro, carrying the equipment. With a sigh he dropped the equipment by the group.

“You guys know I can hear you arguing all the way from the shed, right? If we are going to be a team we need to work together.” And then he turned to Keith, “I expected better,” and then to Lance, “from both of you.” The moment their eyes met Lance lost all train of thought. He always would stare from behind, never wanting to be caught staring at his crush. So when Shiro’s dark brown eyes met Lance’s he about died.

And then a sudden realization hit Lance, he could stare at Shiro. He had to fight to keep from smirking, if he did he would have been caught red handed. He took advantage of the view, taking in his fine jawline and the horizontal scar stretching across his cheek bones. When his eyes came back to looking at Shiro’s, he noted the eyeliner and how it enhanced his eyes beauty. It dragged his attention to the dark chocolate of his eyes and how he-

“Sorry, Shiro.” Keith mumbled, interrupting Lance from his thoughts and daydreams.

“Uh, yeah sorry.”

“Okay, so since we got some new faces this year, some introductions are in order. I’m Takashi Shirogane, Team Captain and catcher. We’ll go around and introduce ourselves. Keith, why don’t you start us off?”

“I’m Keith, Keith Krogane.”

“Lance, Lance McClain.” Lance grinned after saying his name zoning back out to stare at Shiro. He only focused on the conversation when he realized Shiro was talking.

“-and Allura will be our coach. They’ll be here tomorrow, but today is just about the basics of baseball.”

Shiro went on for another 30 minutes talking about rules and about the game in general. Lance had spent the whole time ogling him and openly staring at him, since it looked like he was paying attention. But when he told them to throw around the ball he stopped dead in his tracks and stared at Shiro like he had asked Lance to solve all of the world’s problems. Everyone had split off into groups leaving the two of them there.

“Lance, guess we are going to be partners.” Shiro said with a smile and picking up his hat from the bench he began to walk towards the field.

Lance stared after Shiro as he walked away. With a sigh he picked up his glove and followed. When he reached Shiro he patted his glove and waited for Lance to throw the ball. Lance gave it all he got, and made sure it would at least make it to Shiro. He closed his eyes after throwing it, too scared to see where it would go. He only opened them when he heard the soft thud of the ball hitting Shiro’s glove. When he looked up Shiro was smiling at him holding the ball squished in his glove. Then he began to walk towards Lance, causing Lance to stare at the ground. He only looked up when he heard Shiro a few feet away.

“Why did you close your eyes at the end?” Shiro asked softly.

“I…I was hoping luck was on my side.” 

Shiro’s eyebrow raised, questioning his answer. ”Really? Are you sure that’s why.” And then he paused, watching lance for a reaction. “Lance, is there something you need to tell me? It’s okay, you can talk to me about anything.”

Lance sighed, choosing to talk to Shiro then brush it off as nothing. “Okay, don’t tell anyone. Promise me?”

“I promise.”

“Okay, here’s the thing… I’ve never played baseball before. I only joined because I had to, so I’m obviously the least skilled of everyone here.”

Shiro smiled at him then moved to grab his shoulder, in a supportive way. The touch said what words didn’t. The words of: it’s ok. I’m here to support you. You aren’t alone. We are a team. Lance stared at him and then the hand that remained on his shoulder. The touch had made warm, he almost shivered at the touch at first. He was trying to stop himself from touching Shiro, or saying something like “by the way, I’ve also never seen someone so fine before” or “I am also the least skilled at kissing, can you help me with that too?” Lance had to keep his cool or he wasn’t going to be able to join the team, not if he embarrassed himself by hitting on the captain.

“Lance, it doesn’t matter that you haven’t played before. Sports are something you learn, you have to practice and give it your all. Nobody really walks in a pro. Even pros practice.” With that Shiro’s grip loosened and his hand dropped from Lance’s shoulder.


	2. Catching balls

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance tries to watch Shiro, and Keith is ruining a lot of things for him

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay, i have nobody editing these for grammar, and i'm too tired to edit. So yeah.
> 
> Chapter 3 will be up next week!

Lance was exhausted by the end of practice, even though it wasn’t an official practice. The official practice started tomorrow and they would get their equipment, and uniforms. But the day had been a mess. He didn’t try to embarrass himself but he did. He dropped the ball twice when shiro threw it back to him, tripped over his own feet, and dumped his water on himself by accident. His shirt was drenched when his mom came to pick him up and he had to explain that he had forgotten to tighten the lid on his water, so when he went for a drink all the water came out at once. Lance originally blamed Keith, but they had barely got into the argument before Shiro came to split them up.

The moment he got home he kicked off his shoes, went to make a sandwich, and then went straight to his room. When he got to his room he sat the sandwich on his desk and threw his wet t-shirt on the floor with the other clothes. He went to his bag, pulled out the statistics homework and went back to his desk to get started. He only got half of it done, and would have to ask about the other half to Hunk tomorrow. With that, he resigned to try and sleep.

 

He had 5 minutes till class was dismissed, and then straight to the locker to change into his practice clothes. He wanted to get there earlier and see where everyone else was in the locker room. He’d be lying if he just wanted to see where everyone was. Lance actually just wanted to see where Shiro’s locker was, and where Keith’s locker was. Hopefully he would be close enough to Shiro that he could catch glimpses of him. If he was really lucky, Keith’s locker wouldn’t be close to his or Shiro’s.

When the bell finally rang Lance half jumped out of his seat, speed walking to his locker, or at least going as fast as he could through the crowded halls. When he finally got to his locker he clicked the combination, shoved his stuff in his pack, and then started towards the locker room.

The locker room was a good walk away, and the head start helped because when Lance got there nobody else was there yet. He shrugged off his backpack next to his locker and started to do the combination. The lock was off and he was taking off his shirt when he heard someone open the door to the room. But Lance just pulled out his drawstring bag with his practice clothes and grabbed his shirt out of the bag. He only had his head through the hole when he heard the footsteps. When he looked up he saw Shiro standing there.

“I didn’t expect anyone else to be here this early.”

“uhh… yeah, well I wanted to make sure I had time to get ready.” 

“Right.” And then Shiro moved to the other side of the bench across from him and started to do the combination to his locker. Lance was about to faint with joy and just shock alone. He pulled on the rest of his shirt and then stared at Shiro as he grabbed his shirt from the back and tugged it over his head. Lance tried to undo his cargo shorts, but he was too distracted by the back of Shiro. His mind started to wander along with his eyes, and it took all his will power to look away so he could change shorts. It only took a few minutes, and when he looked up he almost fainted. Shiro was standing there in black boxers and a faded red shirt with some logo on it, Thundercats maybe? Lance wasn’t focused on his chest though, he was more focused on the black boxers.

He snapped out of his crotch appreciating when he heard the door open again. It took only a few moments for the new person to get to his locker area and when they did Lance could hear the music blasting from their ear buds. It sounded like rock or hard core metal. But the person who was listening to it, made sense. Of course Keith would listen to that type of music and of course his locker would be in the same area as Lance’s. Keith was just destined to ruin this whole experience for him it seemed. 

Lance and Keith glared at each other for a bit, until Kieth shrugged and moved past Shiro to a locker beside him. Shiro gave him a happy greeting and went back to putting on his shoes. Keith only gave a mumbled “hey,” and continued to do his combination. 

Lance left to stand by the door waiting for Shiro, and when he went to open it Shiro stopped and shook his head.

“We’ll wait for Keith to get done, and then the three of us will walk together,” Shiro smiled and fixed the bag over his shoulder.

It only took Keith 10 minutes to get dressed and ready, and when he started walking towards them, Lance moved to grab the door. Shiro walked with Keith, and Lance trailed behind staring at Shiro. When they finally got to the field they dumped their bags next to the dugout and followed Shiro to the shed, which was already open. Once they got closer Lance saw a taller lady, taller than Shiro, pulling out 2 buckets of baseballs. He felt his face go red and his cheeks warmed.

“Hey, you guys on the team?” 

“Yeah, all 3 of us. I presume you’re our coach?” Shiro spoke for the group.

“Yeah. I’m Allura, your coach. Over by the car is my assistant coach Coran.”

“Well it’s nice to meet you. I’m Takashi Shirogane, the captain, but you can just call me Shiro. That’s Keith and that’s-“

“The most handsome guy on the team, Lance,” Lance finished with a wink. Allura cringed and moved a few steps away.

“Well, it’s nice to meet you. I can’t wait to meet the rest of the team. Would you mind giving me a hand though?”

“Of course, we don’t mind.” So the 4 grabbed the equipment out of the shed and by the time they got done the rest of the team was there and waiting for Allura to introduce herself.

Keith, Shiro, and Lance joined the rest of the team and sat on the bleachers as she told them of her expectations, who she was, and what practice would be like. She let everyone go around and state the position they wanted. She then signed out the uniforms, led the group in stretching, and split everyone into groups. Shiro was with Lance and Keith. They went towards the mound and Keith went to stand on top. He kicked the dirt around with his cleats until Shiro began to talk.

“Lance if you’re going to be a catcher you need to know the hands signs, but you also have to get along with the pitcher. You both have to be on the same page. Keith is going to rely on you to make calls on what to throw, but you also got to listen to Keith too. I want you to watch for a bit and then you can give it a try.” 

Shiro then went to the dugout to grab the gear, strapping the leg braces and chest gear on. He came back about 15 minutes later in all the gear. The helmet was strapped on and the white tuff of his hair was showing a bit. But he walked right behind the plate and squatted. He stuck two fingers out on his mechanical hand and then moved it away to put his glove there instead. He tilted it down and waited. Keith fixed the new hat on his head and stood with his shoulder facing Shiro. He hid the ball behind his glove, but his hand gripped the ball ready to throw a curveball. He pulled his arm back and lifted his leg, and then his body pushed forward. The leg he lifted coming down and his arm following after. The ball shot out of his hands and moved towards the plate, curving to the left at the last minute. Shiro caught it in his glove, closing it the minute he had it. With a smile he pulled the face mask off and stood up. The ball was still in his glove as he walked back towards the two who were near the mound. Shiro handed Keith the ball and turned his attention to Lance.

“When you’re the catcher you have to make the calls. You have to know the signals, the signals let the pitcher know what to throw. One finger is a fast ball, two is a curveball, three is a slider, and four fingers for a change up. You have to know these, but you’ll learn these a bit later. I think for now you and Keith should just throw around the ball and get used to each other.” With that Shiro left the two of them standing there.

“I can’t believe you’re going to be catching my balls.” Keith practically growled at him in annoyance.

“Well I wasn’t expecting that I’d be catching your balls either.”

Lance stared at Shiro as he walked from group to group. Why couldn’t he catch his balls? Why did he have to catch Keith’s?


	3. After practice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance, Keith, and Shiro hang out after practice. It's fluff galore, and borderline a date
> 
> Lance's POV

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bless my pals, they edited for me ;^)
> 
> AHHHHHH SURPRISE THE 3RD CHAPTER IS READY! shocker, but i'm in the writing mood. 
> 
> Chapter 4 comes later next week.

Lance didn’t want to catch Keith’s balls. Keith was arrogant, and he must have wanted Shiro to catch them, yet Lance was the one stuck with the emo catcher. He would just have to struggle through the ordeal and try to focus on becoming a better catcher. They were only throwing around the ball as Shiro suggested, except Keith was throwing it hard, unnecessarily hard. Hard enough that Lance dropped the ball twice because he didn’t close his glove. Lance couldn’t tell if he was throwing them hard on purpose or not. It was hard to tell, but it seemed like Keith naturally threw hard.

Lance would be lying if he was saying he wasn’t annoyed at Keith’s natural talents. But he wasn’t jealous of Keith, not at all. Keith was still the loner of the team. Sure he got along and talked, but when it came down to it, he preferred to sit alone with his earbuds in. He only ever talked to Shiro and almost always gravitated towards him. Lance struggled to understand why he was even on the team if he didn’t bother trying to be a part of it.

The two of them had been throwing the ball for thirty minutes until Shiro came back and pulled Keith to work with him alone. Lance was sent to go practice groundballs and catching with the rest of the group. He was five minutes into the drill when he let a groundball slide through his gloves, right in front of Allura. That was a moment he wouldn’t be living down easily, or soon. At least nobody had laughed at him.

Lance worked with the others to do the drill, giving it all his effort. It took him awhile, but eventually he got the hang of it. By the end of practice he was somewhat confident in his skills. Not enough to go professional, but enough to not completely fall on his face and fail.

When practice was over, Lance was the last to leave, or so he thought. He had just changed out of his cleats when he heard noises coming from the field. Lance was tucked away in the dugout, invisible to almost anyone and nearly impossible to see. When he heard the noises he stood up, forgetting about tying his shoes and moved to look out onto the field. He was surprised to see Keith and Shiro.

Keith looked exhausted; he was hunched over looking like he was going to faint. Lance watched as Shiro tugged off the helmet and walked towards Keith. He observed as Shiro came close and grabbed keith’s shoulder, the same gesture he himself had received yesterday. As the two began talking, Lance noticed he was creeping on them so he finished tying his shoes and went to leave. By the time he grabbed his stuff and left the dugout, Keith and Shiro were still in conversation. Lance walked up to them, planning to make small talk and be polite before he left. When he neared them their conversation died down and they turned to look at him approach. Shiro waved at him, while Keith glanced at him and rolled his eyes.

“Lance, I thought you left already?” Shiro asked with a smile. His smile would have made him trip over his own feet if it wasn’t for the exhaustion he felt. He kept his composure for once.

“Uh, nah, I was just getting ready to leave. What about you guys?”

“Keith and I just finished up, but if you want you can tag along for dinner.” Lance stared, as his mind wandered to dirty places.

“Oh, uh, sure. I just have to call my mom and let her know that I’ll be eating dinner with you guys.”

Lance turned away and pulled out his phone, calling his mom. She was more than okay with it, almost ecstatic that he was going to hang out with friends. Once he finished he turned around and watched as the two strolled towards him. Shiro smiled at him and kept walking towards the parking lot with Keith; Lance trailing behind them. When they reached the parking lot, Shiro pulled out his car keys and unlocked a black jeep. Lance stared at the car in shock. It was practically new, just last year’s model.

He shook his head and walked around to the trunk where Shiro was putting Keith’s stuff and his own. Once he had theirs in, Lance handed him his bags. Keith had gotten shotgun and was sitting up in the front seat staring out at the field. When Lance climbed into the back he fastened his seatbelt and waited for Shiro.

Lance glanced around the back seat. There was a black hoodie laying on one seat, and with further investigation, he saw purple lettering and part of a logo. He saw a word below the logo, the word ‘Tech’. Lance stared in confusion. Had Shiro been to a different school? Lance stopped and moved his attention onto something else in the car. Under the hoodie was a pack of papers clipped together, with a sticky note on top that looked to have a name and a number. With a glance to the floor he saw a pair of old shoes that were half shoved under Keith’s seat. Overall the car didn’t have anything overly exciting in. However, Lance found the hoodie odd, seeing as the colors weren’t the school colors for Altea Tech. A part of his mind wanted him to ask Shiro where the hoodie was from, yet the other part told him not to. He had snooped through his stuff and obtained the information the wrong way. He didn’t want to ask if it led to upsetting Shiro.

Lance was yanked from his thoughts when they pulled into the small parking lot of a diner. It was tiny and looked slightly out of date. The paint on the outside was faded and the sign was dim and chipped at a corner. When they entered the diner, Shiro led them to a booth near the back, with Keith sliding in to sit next to the window and Shiro following to sit beside him. Lance sat opposite to them, feeling a bit jealous of Keith. Oh well, at least he could accidently touch Shiro with his leg. When the waitress came by they ordered, and while they waited they talked. Lance spoke about his hobbies and his social media, mostly his blog and Instagram. Keith chatted about music and Shiro mentioned school, movies, and baseball.

When their food arrived the conversation died down, with the focus set more on eating. However, the silence didn’t last long. When they finished, they conversed, waiting on the check. Shiro paid and they all went to leave.

“So, what do you guys want to do now?” Lance asked as he threw his arms behind his head, walking towards the car in front of Keith and Shiro. He spun on his foot and stared back at the two. Keith shrugged and walked past him to the car. Shiro watched him and with a sigh he walked past Lance.

When they got into the car, they sat there. Keith looked up from his phone and began to speak.

“We…could go get ice cream.”

Lance leaned forward to poke his head in between the two. “Oh hell yeah, my vote is for getting ice cream!”

“Okay, we’ll go get ice cream. We’ll go out to the place in the mall.” With that Shiro buckled his seatbelt and turned the key. “Lance, put your seatbelt on.”

“Yeah sure, dad,” Lance mumbled under his breath.

It was about 6:30 when they finally arrived at the mall, and the activity was nonexistent. They walked up to the counter, ordered their ice cream, and sat down at a nearby bench.

“So when’s the first game of the season and who’s it against?” Lance asked before continuing to lick the ice cream that was dripping out of the cone.

“Usually we face our rivals, and in about a week and a half. But it’ll probably just be a scrimmage.”

Lance stopped mid lick, and stared in shock. “We have to face the best team in our division?!”

Shiro went back to eating his ice cream, and Keith sat in silence. Keith ended up finishing first and stared at the stores.

“Hey mullet, if you want to go to Hot Topic then just go.” Lance smirked and continued with his ice cream. He only had a few bites left, and he was satisfied from the treat and the insult to Keith.

“I don’t shop there, and I wasn’t thinking about that you-“

“Keith.”

“Ugh, I was thinking about the first game we’re going to have. We aren’t anywhere close to being ready. If they are the best team in our division, then we aren’t going to win in our current state.”

“Keith,” Shiro stood up, his ice cream finished and his attention on his friend. “The moment you say we aren’t going to win, is the moment we lose. We have a chance, we always have a chance. So don’t give up before we start, and even if we don’t win it’s still a scrimmage. We’ll use it to learn and grow as a team.” Shiro smiled warmly at Keith and then smiled back at Lance.

“Okay,” Keith mumbled and moved to throw away his napkins.

“I think we should head home, we still have practice and school tomorrow. Besides, I don’t want you guys to get in trouble for staying out late,” Shiro moved to throw away his trash and went to stand by Keith. Lance stood and stretched, following them out of the building.

The car ride back was quiet and Lance was the first one to be dropped off at his house. When he entered the house, only the kitchen light was on, so he went to the kitchen and put his water bottle away. It was almost 8 pm, so he grabbed a drink out of the fridge and went to his room. It seemed everyone else was asleep. He dropped his backpack on the floor by his bed and flopped onto his bed. Staring at his ceiling, he thought of the events that occurred that day.

Allura was nice, Shiro was perfect, and Keith was untolerable. The only reason he agreed to go get dinner with them was because Shiro was going to be there, and because Shiro had asked him to come along. Lance was still irritated about being a catcher for Keith; he hadn’t thought Keith would be the pitcher. He always assumed Shiro would. The only thing positive to come from it was that Shiro would being showing him personally and taking time to help him one on one. Though he wished it was in a different scenario, preferably at a nice restaurant or alone in the back of a movie theatre. Or even just alone with each other with snacks and video games. That would make Lance happy. Hell, he would be happy just to call Shiro his boyfriend. For now, however, the locker room would have to do.


End file.
